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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258920">Damara Megido- In-Depth Analysis</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzakana/pseuds/suzakana'>suzakana</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Analysis, Character Analysis, Classpect Powers (Homestuck), Classpects (Homestuck), Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Other, mentions of abuse, mentions of manipulation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:40:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258920</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzakana/pseuds/suzakana</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>Note: I wrote the skeleton of this about 3 years ago but I largely fleshed it out recently.</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Damara Megido- In-Depth Analysis</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Note: I wrote the skeleton of this about 3 years ago but I largely fleshed it out recently.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In summary, Damara’s backstory is that she lived with a society of Troll Anime Lovers in East Alternia, where she met Rufioh and developed feelings for him. Rufioh was one of the very few that understood her, so she developed an attachment from the start.</p>
<p>Damara was previously kind and mild-tempered, until she discovered through poor attempts of concealment that Rufioh was cheating on her with Horuss, whom she dislikes anyway due to his incessant fetishization of her as a lowblood and the Alternian equivalent of the “Asian schoolgirl.”Damara laid a complicit doormat in this cycle of abuse for perigees until it escalated, as Meenah found out about this and began to tease her relentlessly about it. Not to excuse Meenah’s abuse but it is later implied by Aranea that there may be other forces at play in regards to the extent that Meenah went to psychologically torment Damara (lord english). It is clear that Damara blamed herself for Rufioh’s infidelity. She had nobody to talk to at this time, even understanding and gentle friends of hers like Porrim couldn’t help with her complex issues rooted in jealousy, frustration, rage, destruction, and bitter betrayal. Combined with Meenah’s jeers and the surprising multitude of pressures of being a lowblood in a largely unforgiving hierarchal society, Damara snapped under the pressure; she killed Meenah and Horuss and severely wounded Rufioh, paralyzing him from the neck down. </p>
<p>After the incident, Damara isolated herself and became cold and distant. She began to smoke &amp; become incomprehensibly vulgar as an inside joke with herself. It most likely was to cover up how much she actually doesn’t care anymore. Due to this, coincidentally, she is in direct parallel to an archetype in characters like Karkat; both characters are brash and blunt to cover up exactly how much they respectively DO or DON’T care. Furthermore on this example, Karkat’s aspect (blood) ties this in relation to the bonds he desperately does not want to sever with the trolls and kids, and Damara’s aspect (time) in relation to the trauma she undergoes and responds to sharply all before she is able to understand that the pain inflicted on her— simply for being easygoing and unprovocative of problems— is undoubtably WRONG. She undergoes an immense amount of psychological torment and is incapable of accepting it healthily.</p>
<p>Damara, much like Aradia, is shown to know more than she lets on. She does this particularly as a trauma response, but also due to her classpect as a witch of time. Witches change their aspect as well as change through their aspect, and no change is quite as obvious as when Damara snaps under all the abuse and starts becoming violent. She quite literally undergoes a drastic change through time (her aspect), going from a kindhearted but painfully submissive girl to an emotionally closed-off, capricious, unpredictable shell of a woman. In addition to changing through time, she changes through destruction, as in the destruction of her relationships as well as the violence she perpetrates on the other alpha trolls. This volatility is amplified by the tendency of time players to have insecurity in their lives that is compensated for in another way, such as knight of time Dave with false bravado and exaggerated chillness, or Damara with her shock factor vulgarity which appears to be an inside joke with herself. </p>
<p>However, even after the incident she offers her words of advice to Rufioh regarding Horuss. This can be seen as a metaphor to abuse victims complicit in their cycles who return to their abuser and show them compassion even after being tormented; it is a facet of gaslighting that Damara sadly falls victim to.</p>
<p>To reiterate, there is a lot of emphasis on change with the time aspect, and Damara is a good example of this in more ways perceivable immediately. Time players are prone to subvert just as Damara did, and the opposite side of the classpect wheel in regards to the witch of time is the seer of space. The attributes of the space aspect explain her initial patience with the subjection to her abuse by Rufioh and Meenah. The identity (as opposed to that of the active class of the witch) of the seer (a passive class) is to be able to recall one’s past in detail, which Damara manifests unknowingly as her post-realization PTSD. Her subversion is also likely partially due to her alienation by the rest of the pre-scratch trolls and her relation to the Handmaid; she ends up using her time powers to sabotage key points in the timeline and wreak havoc on her own team, which is justifiable given that many of them either purposefully alienated her or tormented her for no reason. However, in regards to her post-realization turbulent personality, it is implied by Aranea that there may be other forces at play (lord english, again).</p>
<p>What I wish Damara had been given in canon is not a redemption arc per se, because the nuanced reader can comprehend the intricacies and commentaries about attacking one’s abuser after perigees of torment, but rather more depth and richness than the crumbs of what is already there for her character. It is also understandable to assume that Damara was just used as a plot device in openbound and to give Meenah a reason to be mean. She could have been used for much more than just to drive the plot in a flash game with enough time to go in depth about horse dildos.</p>
<p>In regards to her speech pattern, as mentioned earlier, it is widely speculated that the reason for her vulgar and coarse speech is either her being the way she is (just a vulgar person), or that she is using the language barrier to mess around with her associates in a sort of an inside joke with herself. What she says is offensive and oftentimes lewd to those who can understand it and uses coarse google translate “Japanese,” and much of her speech entirely difficult to take seriously. It is speculated that she’s most likely joking, given everything about her.</p>
<p>When speaking to the kids, she is similar to her pre-realization self in that she’s sweet and she seems to be genuinely kind to them, leading them to believe that that is the only facet to her personality. It can be reasonably assumed that she is kind to them because she is so used to being around her abusers all the time and having to be guarded and cynical; the kids are the only new people she’s seen in a long time, and it shows in her desire to genuinely appeal to and befriend people who don’t know her shame. However, this instance can also be taken out of context to support the idea that Damara is indeed malevolent and manipulating the kids into thinking she’s harmless when in actuality, she goes on to torment people with her powers. This is unlikely though, as the only people she legitimately shows disdain for are the other alpha trolls and Lord English.</p>
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